Please tell me, how exactly can we bring proper awareness to people
about the situation in Africa, Palestine, Syria, etc. without the use of
graphic imagery? If people are becoming desensitized to the imagery,
what can be said of reducing a person's life to a mere statistic?
Numbers don't mean anything to people anymore. If someone sees in the
news "30 have died" it doesn't strike a heart string. It doesn't propel
people into action because people don't associate that number with a
face, with a person, with a mother or father or sister or brother. I get
that we should respect the dead but how do we stop more from dying?

One of the most important battles in Islamic history was between the
Abbasid Caliph Al-Mu’tasim Billah and the Roman Emperor Theophilus,
which resulted in Muslims taking over Ammoriyyah, a city in the area of
modern day Anatolia. The main reason for this battle was that the Romans
who had control over that city, which was on the borders of the Abbasid
Caliphate and Roman Empire, engaged in abuses against Muslim women in
the area. One of the women screamed after being attacked and imprisoned,
“O Mu’tasimah” calling for the help of the Muslim Caliph against her
attackers. This call reached Al-Mu’tasim who sent a letter to Theophilus
stating, “From the Commander of the Believers Al-Mu’tasim Billah to the
dog of the Romans. Let the woman go free, and if you do not I will send
you an army the beginning of which will reach you and the rear of it
will reach me.” Of course Theophilus did not take heed of the warning,
so Al-Mu’tasim sent a massive army chanting, “I have responded O
sister!”

Muslims were a people who did not need graphic images to
be moved to act. In fact, people in general during those times were
moved to act merely from hearing about acts of oppression and injustice.Today, in this image-based world, we are subjected to the worst of
images, and beyond voicing how appalled we are, we remain powerless
against governments who will continue to exercise their sinister plans
against the people. Worse yet, we have become desensitized not only to
statistics, but also even to the images themselves. The very simple fact
that one can see some of these images and be able to eat their dinner
is a dangerous sign.

Politics has taken precedence over
everything. The evidence for this is in how loud our outcries are over
Gaza and Syria, but we hardly say much about other places in the world
where genocides are taking place today, such as the case is in Africa.
What Allah and His Messenger want is only used when useful, and
interpreted away when it goes against our whims. Then we have the
audacity to make dua!

Riyadhus Solihin

Chapter 193Strict Orders for Observance of Obligatory Salat

Hadith 1076Ibn `Umar (May Allah be pleased with them) reported: The Messenger of Allah(PBUH) said, "I have been commanded to fight against the people till they testify La ilaha illAllah (There is no true god except Allah) and that Muhammad (PBUH) is His slave and Messenger, and to establish As-Salat (Iqamat-as-Salat), and to pay Zakat; and if they do this, then their blood and property are secured except by the rights of Islam, and their accountability is left to Allah."[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].